New in Plaintext

Hackers and crackers, cybervandals and cyberterrorists. New terms for these online menaces are coined regularly and are tossed about without much thought for who these people are and why they do what they do.

A group of experts in terrorism, cybersecurity, and psychology are now helping to close this gap in a new book, Cyber Adversary Characterization: Auditing the Hacker Mind. The authors are security consultant Tom Parker; Matthew G. Devost, president of the Terrorism Research Center, Inc.; Marcus H. Sachs, director of the SANS Internet Storm Center; Eric Shaw, a clinical psychologist who has done psychological profiles for the U.S. government on figures including Saddam Hussein; and Ed Stroz, president of Stroz Friedberg, LLC.

The book uses case studies, such as that of infamous social engineer Kevin Mitnick, to help explain "cyber adversary characterization." It also details possible nation-state adversaries (China ranks high on this list) as well as threats from international terrorists and rogue nations. A chapter by a former black-hat named Fyodor outlines some real ways in which an organized group could compromise a country's computer infrastructure.

The book, published by Syngress, is available through online retailers for about $34.